George Lucas Will Not Be Involved With 'Indiana Jones 5' Script

For as long as the "Indiana Jones" franchise has existed, George Lucas has worked hand in hand with director Steven Spielberg and star Harrison Ford on crafting the scripts for each film. As a producer through his Lucasfilm banner, Lucas had helped come up with story ideas for all four previous Indy flicks, including the much-maligned most recent outing, "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull." But now, according to the "Indy 5" screenwriter, Lucas appears to have taken a step back from those duties.

In an interview with Collider, writer David Koepp spoke about progress on the upcoming film's screenplay, and had a surprising response when asked about Lucas's involvement in shepherding the flick's concept.

"He's not [involved], to my knowledge," Koepp told Collider of the scripting process. "I've had no contact with him."

As Collider points out, it's a curious development, since Lucas was so hands-on for the previous four films in the franchise. According to the site, he was the one who pushed for the aliens angle in "Crystal Skull." Perhaps that film's negative reception soured Lucas on working on another Indy outing? Or maybe Lucas is still feeling bitter about the high-profile sale of Lucasfilm to Disney, and feeling left out of the making of "Star Wars: The Force Awakens."

Whatever his reason for not participating in the scripting process, Lucas is still set to serve as an executive producer on the project, according to Spielberg. We'll see if the filmmaker has anything to say about the flick in the coming years.